But something else may surprise you: Growth is a choice. And many small-business owners choose not to grow.

You may choose not to grow because you’ve reached a point where you’re satisfied with your company’s size. If you’re a solo entrepreneur, you might like working alone and not having the responsibility of managing and paying an employee.

If you have a small business, say two to 10 employees, you may feel as if you can’t handle any more. If your income has reached a satisfactory level and you’re meeting personal and professional goals, you may choose to stop there.

After all, growth is challenging. It means changing roles, taking on different responsibilities.

It also can mean taking on more risks and more debt.

So why grow? Choose to grow because a business that’s not growing is actually shrinking.

Here’s why:

• Natural loss of customers. Every year, you will lose some customers, no matter how good a job you do. Some will move away, their needs will change or competitors will tempt them.

• Changing demographics or preferences. You may lose customers because of the inevitable evolution in customers’ buying patterns. Some customers and prospects will die, or their incomes will shrink.

• New competition. Inevitably, you’ll face new rivals or new types of competition, making it tougher for your income to remain steady.

• Economic forces outside your control. The economy may threaten the financial health of your company in spite of how well you manage it. As someone once said, “If you just sit there, sooner or later you’ll get run over.”

Of course, the kind of growth you may want is growth only in sales, not in size. But that still entails making a decision to invest in activities that will increase your customer base.

You must choose to grow.

Even if you’re fortunate enough to have customers beating a path to your door, the life of a small business has natural times when you have to consider whether you’re willing to commit to growth.

• Your first employee. Before your first hire, your company consists of you and perhaps independent contractors or family members.

Once you hire your first employee, you must meet payroll; someone else’s income depends on you. Yes, you now will have someone helping you grow your company, but you’ll have more pressure to grow.

• 20 employees. At this stage, directly supervising or interacting with all your employees daily is more difficult. You’ll need managers. This often feels like a major loss of control.

Many entrepreneurs choose consciously to stop their growth around this point because they want to know what’s going on with everyone who works for them.

• 50 to 100 employees. Once you’ve reached this size, a company needs substantial professional, financial and operational management.

Counterintuitively, this is often the stage at which your company becomes less sustainable. Your overhead is probably high, your debt is significant and you’re big enough for major competitors to notice you.

If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you want your business to grow, perhaps grow very big.

But that can happen only if you choose to grow. Then plan your growth, manage it well and have a little luck on your side.

Rhonda Abrams is president of The Planning Shop and publisher of books for entrepreneurs. Her most recent book is “Entrepreneurship: A Real-World Approach.” Register for Rhonda’s free newsletter at PlanningShop.com. Twitter: @RhondaAbrams. Facebook: facebook.com/RhondaAbramsSmallBusiness.